iCapital's investment technology platform
is now integrated with Morningstar Advisor Workstation and provides
170,000 financial advisors with access to alternative investments
and research.
CHICAGO and NEW
YORK, Jan. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Morningstar,
Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN), a leading provider of independent
investment insights, and iCapital,1 the global
fintech platform empowering the asset and wealth management
industry with an industry-leading alternative investment
experience, today announced a strategic relationship to
provide Advisor WorkstationSM users with access to
alternative investments and analytics for the first time.
The integration equips Advisor Workstation's more than 170,000
users with alternative investment research and tools to evaluate
private assets side by side with traditional investments. Coupled
with investment proposal and report capabilities in Advisor
Workstation, the solution empowers advisors to offer holistic
recommendations and build diversified portfolios that include
alternative assets for clients.
"This is a game-changer for advisors who are building a modern
advisory practice and serving evolving investors' demands for
diversification and personalization," said Vimal Vel, chief product officer for
Morningstar's Enterprise group. "Advisor Workstation's integration
with iCapital is unique because it'll be end-to-end. Advisors will
be able to include alternatives alongside traditional investments
in model portfolios, reports, and proposals."
"We are enormously excited to forge this relationship with
Morningstar and support expanded access to alternative investing
opportunities and insights," said Lawrence
Calcano, chairman and chief executive officer at iCapital.
"Our simple, intuitive technology interface ensures that Advisor
Workstation users have access to both the right products for their
clients and an extensive library of educational resources to make
informed decisions relating to portfolio allocations and
diversification strategies."
With the recent completion of the first phase of the strategic
relationship, independent advisor clients now have access – through
a single interface – to both iCapital Marketplace, a
platform featuring the industry's broadest selection of alternative
investment funds, due diligence and education resources, fund
subscription processing, and third-party reporting services, and
iCapital Architect, an innovative portfolio construction and
analysis tool for financial advisors to build robust, personalized
client portfolios incorporating alternatives.
Phase two, coming in the first half of 2024, will bring the
integration to Advisor Workstation's Enterprise-level clients and
leverage iCapital's analytics to generate Morningstar's Portfolio
Risk Score, a numeric score that represents the risk level of a
given portfolio against the Morningstar Target Allocation Index
Family, when alternatives are added to client asset allocations.
Coupled with the Morningstar Risk Profiler's risk tolerance test,
Advisor Workstation can then show the range of Portfolio Risk
Scores, known as the Risk Comfort range, within which each client
would be most comfortable.
Demand for Alternatives is Forecasted to
Increase
Advisors are responding to client needs and an
uncertain market environment by offering more products – in the
form of alternative assets, according to Morningstar's Voice of the
Advisor study that takes the pulse of more than 600 financial
advisors and wealth managers across the U.S. The study found that
advisors offering a wide variety of products to their clients say
alternatives (cryptocurrency, structured products,
liquid alternatives, REITs, private debt, and private equity) make
up between 14% and 19% of their total assets under management.
In addition, an iCapital survey of 400 U.S. registered
advisors last year found that 50% of all advisors said client
interest in alternative investments has increased over the past two
years. Almost all (95%) advisors surveyed say they plan to allocate
the same or more to alternative investments in the coming year.
Currently, advisors who use alternatives – about 36% – allocate
between 5% and 15% of client portfolios to alts.
About Morningstar, Inc.
Morningstar, Inc. is a leading
provider of independent investment insights in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The Company offers an extensive line of
products and services for individual investors, financial advisors,
asset managers and owners, retirement plan providers and sponsors,
and institutional investors in the debt and private capital
markets. Morningstar provides data and research insights on a wide
range of investment offerings, including managed investment
products, publicly listed companies, private capital markets, debt
securities, and real-time global market data. Morningstar also
offers investment management services through its investment
advisory subsidiaries, with approximately $264 billion in assets under advisement and
management as of Sept. 30, 2023. The
Company operates through wholly- or majority-owned subsidiaries in
32 countries. For more information,
visit www.morningstar.com/company. Follow Morningstar on X at
@MorningstarInc.
About iCapital
Founded in 2013, iCapital is the
leading global fintech company powering the world's alternative
investment marketplace. iCapital has transformed how the wealth
management, banking, and asset management industries facilitate
access to private markets investments for their high-net-worth
clients by providing intuitive, end-to-end technology and service
solutions; education tools and resources; and robust diligence,
compliance, and portfolio analytics capabilities. iCapital's
solutions enable organizations to streamline and scale their
operational infrastructure for alternative investments and to
provide access to direct investments and feeder funds at lower
minimums through simplified digital workflows.
iCapital-managed platforms offer wealth advisors and their
high-net-worth clients access to an extensive menu of private
investments, including equity, credit, real estate, infrastructure,
hedge funds, annuities, and risk-managed solutions. iCapital has
been recognized on the Forbes Fintech 50 list each year from
2018 to 2023, the Forbes America's Best Startup Employers in 2021,
2022, and 2023, and MMI/Barron's Industry Awards as Solutions
Provider of the Year in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.
As of Nov. 30, 2023, iCapital
services over $172 billion in global
client assets, of which about $27
billion are from international investors (non-US Domestic)
across more than 1,400 funds. Employing more than 1,200 people
globally, iCapital is headquartered in NYC and has offices
worldwide, including in Zurich,
London, Lisbon, Hong
Kong, Singapore, and
Toronto.
For more information, visit https://icapital.com | Twitter
(X): @icapitalnetwork | LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/icapital-network-inc
For media inquiries, please contact:
iCapital:
+1 919 602 2806
icapital@neibartgroup.com
Morningstar:
Michael
Claussen
+1 312 696-6037
newsroom@morningstar.com
The material herein has been provided to you for informational
purposes only by iCapital, Inc. ("iCapital"). This material is the
property of iCapital and may not be shared without the written
permission of iCapital. No part of this material may be reproduced
in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without
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This material is provided for informational purposes only and is
not intended as, and may not be relied on in any manner as, legal,
tax or investment advice, a recommendation, or as an offer to sell,
a solicitation of an offer to purchase or a recommendation of any
interest in any fund or security. You should consult your personal
accounting, tax and legal advisors to understand the implications
of any investment specific to your personal financial situation.
This material does not intend to address the financial objectives,
situation or specific needs of any individual investor. Alternative
investments are complex, speculative investment vehicles and are
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The information contained herein is an opinion only, as of the
date indicated, and should not be relied upon as the only important
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services are provided by iCapital Annuities and Insurance Services
LLC, an affiliate of iCapital, Inc. "iCapital" and "iCapital
Network" are registered trademarks of Institutional Capital
Network, Inc. Additional information is available upon request.
© 2024 Institutional Capital Network, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
1 iCapital, Inc., and its affiliates (together,
"iCapital").
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SOURCE Morningstar, Inc.